PHOENIX — The Boston Celtics already were in trouble without Paul Pierce. Take Kevin Garnett away, too, and it got ugly against the Phoenix Suns.

Amare Stoudemire and Channing Frye scored 26 points apiece, and the Suns handed what was left of the Celtics their third straight loss, 116-98 last night.

Without Garnett to guard him, Stoudemire scored 18 on 9-of-10 shooting in the first quarter and finished 11 of 14 from the field. Foul trouble kept him from adding significantly to his statistics.

Frye had a season best in scoring, sinking 6-of-9 3-pointers and grabbing 10 rebounds as the Suns swept the two-game season series.

"It's a win over the Celtics. We'll take it," Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry said. "They don't really put an asterisk by it and say Kevin Garnett wasn't here, so we'll take it any way we can get it."

Eddie House led the Celtics with 19 points, going 5 of 7 on 3s. Ray Allen managed 15 points of 4-of-13 shooting in the final stop of what turned out to be an awful four-game trip.

"When you take your best two scorers off the floor against a scoring basketball team, and your best defender off the floor, you may not win that game," Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "So this game doesn't affect me at all."

The Suns, who improved to 13-2 at home, never trailed after a 16-0 first-quarter run.

Leandro Barbosa added 17 points for Phoenix.

Cavaliers 106, Hawks 101: Anderson Varejao made his first career 3-pointer with 17.2 seconds left — a 25th birthday present to teammate LeBron James — to help host Cleveland beat Atlanta. James had a season-high 48 points with 10 rebounds.

Magic 117, Bucks 92: Vince Carter overcame a hard third-quarter collision to score 25 points, and host Orlando used a 17-2 run after the hard hit on Carter to pull away and hand Milwaukee its seventh loss in eight games.

Grizzlies 121, Pacers 110: Rudy Gay scored 31 points, Zach Randolph added 28 points and 13 rebounds, and visiting Memphis opened a 68-51 halftime lead in handing Indiana its eighth straight loss.

Nets 104, Knicks 95: Brook Lopez had 21 points and 14 rebounds and host New Jersey not only won its third game of the season, it snapped a 10-game losing streak —its second double-digit skid — with a blowout of New York.

Raptors 107, Bobcats 103: Chris Bosh had 33 points and 13 rebounds, Andrea Bargnani matched his season high with 28 points, and host Toronto held off Charlotte for its season-high fifth straight victory.

Jazz 107, Timberwolves 103: Deron Williams had 21 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, and visiting Utah held off Minnesota, which trailed by 17 with 4:30 remaining, but closed to 106-103 with seven seconds left.

Hornets 95, Heat 91: David West scored six of his 21 points in the last 55 seconds, helping host New Orleans end a two-game losing streak, while stopping Miami's three-game winning streak.

76ers 116, Kings 106: Lou Williams scored 22 points, including a jumper with 7:13 left to break a 91-all tie and visiting Philadelphia never trailed again in beating Sacramento.

Trail Blazers 103, Clippers 99: Brandon Roy had 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists, leading host Portland past Los Angeles despite losing LaMarcus Aldridge to an ankle injury.